The tank cycled quite quickly once the LR and damsel were added. Ammonia spiked, then Nitrite. Days later, everything dropped to zero, and the nitrate went up.

Things looked good, and the fish was happy.

About 4 days ago, 2 rose bubbletip anenomes were added (another subject of varying opinions). One large, and one small. Both eat well.

The tank is still doing great, and there have been lots of critters making themselves known in the LR. Just last night, we spotted a fantube worm, and noticed some of the clams attached to the LR were opening and closing.

Feeding the anenomes was a BIG concern of mine. They are very peculiar animals. The small anenome seemed to position itself in a current of water where the frozen brine shrimp I put in the tank once in a while get caught up in its tenticles. The larger anenome wasn't catching anything.

I decided to drop some of the sinking SW fish food I bought, on the large anenome. It ate it up, without spitting it out, and I was relieved. The next morning, I looked in the tank, and the large anenome was nothing but a pile of shriveled bits. We thought the anenome was dead. After turning on the light, and a few hours past, we noticed that the anenome had come back to life. What was it doing?

Well, after more research, I learned that anenomes will deflate/shrivel when they are pooping. Which they do from their mouth. This was all lovely I thought, but was glad that the anenome was alright.

I decided to get the anenome some REAL food. I read that some folks like to feed their anenomes silversides, and so I picked up a bag. For $3 I got a bag of frozen silversides that will last at LEAST a year. See, a whole fish is too much for the anenome to eat (I learned this the hard way). The anenome was sucking away at that 2" fish, but the fish wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Fearing that the decaying fish would screw up my water chemistry, I yanked the dead fish from the anenomes tenticles (carefully of course, yanked was a harsh word), and sliced off a half inch mid section of the fish. I placed the severed squidgy bit on the anenome again, and WahLA!!! Within minutes, the anenome sucked down the fish chunk. One happy anenome.

THe other anenome is still small enough where the brine shrimp are giving it plenty of food. I can't wait until it graduates to fish chunks.

The large anenome will only get feed every couple of days, maybe even once a week. I don't want to over feed it.

I just began a water chem regiment of calcium and pH buffer. My pH is normally high and has been around 7.6 - 7.7 After adding a very small portion of the pH and calcium buffer yesterday, my readings today showed a solid 7.8 The standard pH level for a reef is supposed to be upwards of 8 - 8.3 so I'm working towards that, but in moderation. Until then, the anenomes and the damsel seem content.

Calcium is another biggie, and I'd like to definately make sure that the levels are high enough.

Just fed the large RBTA after skipping a day of feeding. Man is it fun to watch'em suck down those fish bits. He won't get fed again until friday. The small RBTA continues to catch enough frozen brine shrimp that float through the tank at feeding time.

My wife and I noticed the other night, that the molusks on the one piece of LR were alive! This is a real live piece of LR! At least 5 of the 8 shell forms on the rock were opening and closing their traps during feeding time. I'm assuming that they are catching small bits of food particles. There are all sorts of living bits on the rocks, and every day seems to bring something new.

I picked up a Supreme Skilter 250 today, knowing fully well that it is NOT top of the line. Proud of it too. It's supposed to work for tanks up to 55 gallons, quite efficiently, so we'll see what comes of it.

The instructions say that protein waste may not even occur until 6 weeks or more into use (on new tanks). We'll have a long time to wait on this. On established tanks (6+ months) it should only take 6-10 days before waste is sucreted.

The pluses so far have been that I am able to take out the MaxiJet 400 powerhead, because the water stream from the skilter is powerful enough. This is taking out a HUGE piece of equipment from the tank, and makes it look much nicer.

Another plus is that I now have an additional filtration unit. UGF plus external filter.

Another plus is that the aeration of the water is much better. The UGF was distributing bubbles, but not many.

DOWN SIDE: Another piece of equipment to clean out (really sad about that, yeah right) but the BIGGEST negative is that the filter sucks in all the frozen brine shrimp I put in at feeding time! The powerhead used to just scoot it all over the tank and the little anenome would get a bunch. SO... what I've done to fix the problem is... put in the brine shrimp, let it circulate for a second or two, and pull the plug on the skilter. My little 1" RBTA was able to catch 4-5 brines during feeding that way. yay! The damsel ate the rest, and in went the plug; back to skiltering.

ANENOME NEWS:

My large RBTA pooped out its fish chunk from yesterday 2 feedings of silversides in 3 days was too much. I picked out the floating half digested fish bit, and the RBTA did the rest of its pooping thing. It's now fully inflated again, and looking good. I think it will only get fed once a week.

The anenome didn't quite finish doing its thing when I thought it was done. Its been pooping for a soild 48 hours; little brown balls, slimey poop-goop, you name it. Since there is no clownfish for it yet, I aided it in releasing the waste by circulating the water around the anenome so that the poop wouldn't stay stuck to it.

Well, I figured that anyone who had to spend that much time on the johnny crapper needed to have some reading material. So, I set up the childrens' picture book version of Finding Nemo in front of the glass. This story can make ANY anenome feel important. Doody calls.

THe water chem. is SO stable; almost unbelievable. Being that it is a new tank, with an operator who's a newbie nano-reefer, I'm real impressed so far.

Ammonia = zero
Nitrite = zero
Nitrate = 5-10
Salinity = 1.023

Still keeping my fingers crossed! BTW: the small RBTA is still doing GREAT!!! It poops too, but does it quicker, and in small amounts.

well that all explains what mine is doing poopoopoop it to shrinks so small maybe to a inch but when its fully out 5 inches easy also it gets a dark purple color sometimes. I read some where that its easy to over feed them . well you helped releave me I thought he was sick.

Well, we really thought the large RBTA was a goner yesterday. It had fallen off its rock, was sickly shrivelled, and not in its original form in about 4 days.

I moved it to another part of the tank.

This morning, we wake up, and it is FULLY inflated, looking as good as new! We're very happy that it's still kicking.

As for the small RBTA, it's also looking better than ever. In fact, we were discussing that it even looks a bit bigger already.

Water Chem. continues to be steady.

Yes, swr, I will probably upgrade to something fancier once the tank gets really 'comfortable'. It's just so new that nothing is even ready to come out of it yet! Once the skimmer on this skilter starts showing signs of waste removal, and the water chem seems to be on a decline (if that happens) I will purchase another one. Thanks for the info on the equipment you've got!

if all goes well you might have to cut down on feeding or you will have some big anemones on your hands and most likly if they get to big you damsel might "disapear". also what lighting do you have on your tank a coralife 20k bulb isn't realy enough info. how many watts?